Summer Fund

Founded in 1971, the Summer Fund is a donor collaborative comprised of over 15 funders, which supports summer camps and programs. The Summer Fund was established by Philanthropy Massachusetts (formerly Associated Grant Makers) to address issues of racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities by recognizing the need for summer opportunities for youth in need, and to steward the fair and equitable distribution of resources to ensure access to those opportunities. The Summer Fund serves as a broker between the philanthropic community and nonprofit organizations providing summer programming to underserved youth. The Summer Fund provides direct operational support to selected summer camps and programs. Governed by an Advisory Committee, The Summer Fund is operated/staffed by Philanthropy Massachusetts. Since its inception, the Summer Fund has provided over $35,000,000 in resources to build, sustain and strengthen a quality summer program network. The Summer Fund tailors its grantmaking to include and accommodate the needs identified by nonprofits. The Fund has provided resources for summer programs to support youth experiencing homelessness, as well as youth mental health and well-being, employment, food security, cultural access, social-emotional learning, transportation, and summer learning loss. The Summer Fund is committed to responding to these key intersections through its grantmaking moving forward. Today, our mission and goals remain fundamentally unchanged, as reflected by our funding criteria. Racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities are still evident in the quality and availability of summer programming, and we continue to seek collaborative approaches to address the inequities and ensure that summer opportunities are accessible to every child.